Cable terminal shield



1933- H. J. PETERSON CABLE TERMINAL SHIELD Original Filed Feb. 13, 1930 gnw'ntot Reissued Nov. 14, 1933 g lz UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE CABLE TERMINAL SHIELD Horton J. Peterson, Virginia, Minn.

Original No. 1,869,863, dated August 2, 1932,

Serial No. 428,212, February 13, 1930. Application for reissue June 28, 1933. Serial No.- 678,100

4 Claims. (01. 247 2) This invention relates to safety terminal conp the insulation as Commonly practiced W nections for electric meters, and refers particut brfiaking the terminal S i d. larly to novel means for assuring against the I am aware that somewhat similar appearing theft of current adjacent the t i l connecterminals are old in the art but are formed in- 5 tions of such meters, the principal object of which cooperative combination with a novel form of is obvious, and another object being that of conductor needle or point, they bei for the D -i providing a simple insulating shield adjacent D e Of i c easi g a d assuring Positive COIldllCe an electric wire terminal. tivity, and in no instance showing an insulated Other objects and advantages of the invention Shield as a cmltemplated in y present inven- 10 will appear in the following description thereof. tion. H

Referring now to the accompanying drawing, Having thus described my invention, what I wherein like reference characters indicate like claim'and desire to secure y Letters Patent, is! parts: 1. The combnation with an electric meter cas- Figure 1 is a plan vieW of the terminal chamber ing having a plurality of flanged terminal sockets 15 of an electric meter showing the feed wire termiformed therein through Whic t e pp y Wires nals to the meter as being equipped with the inmake contact with the meter, of an elongated sulated tip, one of which is shown in section; and breakable thimble-like shield snugly fitting over Figure 2 is a perspective view of a disassembled the .end of the insulation o t e S pp y Wire and tip and wire. tightly fitting the socket, said thimble having 20 1 represents the terminal chamber of the meter a substantially fiat end provided with a hole which is provided with the usual four terminal through which a bare end of the wire may pass. flanged sockets 2 for the input and output conwith a snug fit.

nections. 2. In combination, a meter terminal housing It is well known that the electric current to such having flanged cup-like holes for the reception 25 meters is frequently bypassed by a short piece of of the feed wires to the meter and a fragile wire being tucked into one of the flanged sockets insulating thirnble having a substantially flat end 2 at one end and into the socket 3 at the opposite upon the wire terminals, said th mbles fitting end so as to engage the unshielded portion of the snugly into the cup-like holes and tightly over wire in such sockets. the insulation of the wire, and having a hole in 30 In the ordinary construction of meter such unsaid end through which only the bared portion authorized practice becomes very simple as there of the feed w're passes with a snug lit for makis invariably space about the end of the insulaing contact with the meter. tion of such wires for readily slipping a shunt wire 3. The combination with an insulated elecinto the socket where it is readily held by im tric feed wire, the insulation adjacent the end 35 pingement against that portion of the terminal thereof having been removed for making an elecwire which is uninsulated. trical contact, of an elongated frangible thimble To prevent such practice I have provided prefhaving a substantially flat end provided with a erably a glass shield of thimble-like form indihole therethrough said thimble being adapted to cated at 4 though of course this may be made of snugly fit over the insulation and the bared por- 40 other non-conductive material, but glass has the tion of the wire pass through the hole with subadded advantage of being readily detected if fracstant ally a snug fit. Y tured or broken for such practice; the same to '4. The combination with an insulated electric fit snugly over the wire being used for feeding feed wi e, the insulation adjacent the end therecurrent into the meter. A hole 5 is provided in the of hav been FEmCVed f0? making an t i al end of the shield 4 f r prgtrusion of the naked (301113220 5, 6f 2.11 BZOl'lgZ-tfid thimble oi non-conduct- 10G portion 6 of th wire, or t t fl'gm which the ing material having a substantially flat end proinsulation has prevoiusly been removed, so that Vided with a m g m a adapted 59 no alteration in the meter chamber is required, t l i we msulatwn t 390,11- however the shield 4 is of a size to snugly fit with g gfi thmugh the Ole 10 in the annular flange 2 or 3 provided about such L i g a terminal connections. The shields are of suffi- HORTON PETERSON cient length to extend considerably beyond the flanges of the chambers so that it becomes prac- 55 tically impossible to insert a wire through or v 

